3Com EtherLink 3C980C-TXM User Manual page 33

Configuring Groups and VLANs 33
address must be unique (not used elsewhere on the
network). For details, see Specifying a Dedicated IP
Address on page 37.
Decide which NICs are to be part of each group. Each
group must include at least two NICs.
Decide whether you want to use a foreign NIC in one of
the groups.
One foreign NIC (one that is not a 3Com EtherLink
Server NIC) is allowed in one group per server.
Decide which NIC is to be the primary NIC in
each group. If a foreign NIC is used, it must be
designated the primary NIC.
With the 3Com EtherLink Server 1000 PCI NIC, you can
specify failover to another EtherLink Server 1000 PCI
NIC or to a 3Com EtherLink 10/100 PCI server NIC. If
you choose to failover to the EtherLink 10/100 PCI NIC,
you must disable load balancing for that group.
For the best failover performance, turn the spanning
tree feature off at switches that are connected directly
to the server. If the spanning tree feature is turned on, a
failover may be delayed up to 30 seconds while the
switch processes the spanning tree algorithm.
Plan the cable changes required to connect each primary
NIC and all secondary NICs to the same network segment.
Observe the recommended support limit of four groups
per server.
The following guidelines apply to groups under
Windows 2000:
802.1p Support Property—The value of the Windows
2000 802.1p Support property must be the same for all
NICs in a group. For example, if this property is enabled
for the primary NIC, it must also be enabled for all other
NICs in the group.
Microsoft Task Offload Support—It is possible to
form a group of NICs that have different levels of
support for Microsoft Task Offload features (TCP
Checksum, TCP Segmentation, and IP Sec). In this case,
the offload support is limited to the features supported
by all NICs in the group. For example, if two NICs in a